Industry categories

[Neal Bricker] The importance of an internal communications network is difficult to overstate. Businesses require a comprehensive on-site infrastructure to function efficiently and improve productivity.

[Luke Wingfield Digby] Online reputation management has come to mean managing the perception of yourself, or your brand, on the internet and especially social media. But for email marketers, reputation management is critical and far more tangible: it's the difference between sending emails and having entire domains blacklisted because you are seen as a spammer.

[Doros Hadjizenonos] IT security has no respect for size. A hacking group can have hundreds or thousands of members globally, like anonymous, or just a handful, like the group that mounted the successful Eurograbber attacks against banks in 2012 - but in either case, the disruption to the target organisations is equally severe.

[Selvin Kristnen] It seems businesses large and small are coming round to the idea of using video conferencing as an effective and efficient business communications tool. This shift has partly been driven by the popularity of consumer video technologies like Skype, which are allowing people to communicate face-to-face across different geographies and time zones, in a cost-effective, efficient and social manner.

[Alexander Mehlhorn] We all recognise the stereotypical IT manager sitting behind a desk in the company dungeon, wearing a t-shirt sporting an obscure geek reference, and sighing into the phone as he tries to convince the marketing manager to use a password other than 'God'.

[Niven Perumal] Most businesses have physical premises to protect - warehouses, offices or stores that are vulnerable to crime - as well as virtual "assets" and information. Technology can play a crucial role in protecting both.

[Jed Hewson] Gartner has said that there will be a 17% compound growth over the next five years for contact centre adoption of hosted call centre solutions, and it expects that by the end of this year, 75% of global call centres will be leveraging hosted call centre solutions.

[Jaroslav Cerny] Economic conditions are a very pressing challenge for organisations of all sizes around the world, resulting in squeezed budgets. One such area is IT. As a result, many organisations are turning to outsourcing as a business model, as it offers savings, flexibility, scalability and the ability to access resources on demand rather than having to hire them full time. However, as a result of the unique conditions in South Africa which include a massive skills shortage, and in an effort to save money, some organisations are turning to temporary staffing solutions to fill critical posts. This can be a costly mistake.

[Fokion Natsis] Change is afoot in the South African contact centre industry, as savvy companies realise that their customers are communicating with them in new and different ways. To stay ahead of the pack they will need to change their game plans - especially in tougher economic times.

[Paul Fick] The South African education sector is faced with the significant challenge of increasing the matriculant pass rate with limited resources. Some of these include a high learner-to-teacher ratio and a lack of technology that could enable a better learning experience.

[Paddy Hartdegen] Mobile network operator, Cell C says that it will compensate thousands of BlackBerry users in South Africa for the service disruption they suffered when a core switch failed within the parent company Research in Motion says Business Report.